UC Browser: The little browser that could

If you’re an Android user, you probably use Google Chrome as your phone’s browser. Over the course of time, the browser by Google has undergone various transformations and optimizations in the hopes of offering speedy performance that won’t suck up all resources on your smartphone.

Sadly, though, Google Chrome has a few flaws. For starters, it takes up a hefty portion of your smartphone’s storage and is also a bit of a memory hogger. This is a significant issue in countries that have low-end smartphones and blotchy mobile service. UC Browser is aiming to change all that.

What is UC Browser?

Developed by UCWeb, a Chinese mobile internet company, and owned by Alibaba Group in China, UC Browser has been around since the year 2004. While UC Browser is a relatively unheard of in the West, the browser’s popularity seems to have skyrocketed in rapidly growing markets such as India and Indonesia.

Image Credits: UC Forum

Why? Because its more resource friendly. If you’re doubtful, take a look at how much storage space Google Chrome is taking on your smartphone. Chances are that its taking up around 200-300MB, perhaps even more.

UC Browser, on the other hand only takes up around 31MB of space. In comparison, Google Chrome when just installed, takes up around 125MB. According to StatCounter, UC Browser accounted for 51% of India’s mobile browser market for 2017. Google Chrome on the other hand was around 30%. It was more or less the same with Indonesia where UC Browser accounted for 41% of all mobile internet traffic compared to Google Chrome at 32%.

Why is UC Browser so popular?

Perhaps the primary reason for UC Browser to be so popular is the app’s rather small footprint of 31MB compared to Google Chrome. In this day and age where most smartphones in the US have a minimum of 32GB of internal storage, most smartphones in Asia’s developing markets still have around 8-12GB of internal storage with only around 4-5GB of actually usable storage.

When Google Chrome ends up taking one fifth of that storage, users are faced with storage issues, hence they look for better alternatives. UC Browser also has a portal-like approach to showing news, scores from sports like cricket and soccer and other content, building upon visual appearance to attract users.

As you can see, Google Chrome tends to go a tad overboard with storage

With only 30% of India’s population of 1.3 billion people connected to the internet and only 25% of Indonesia’s 260 million having access to the web, India and Indonesia are a few of the last untapped markets for internet users.

What’s popular may not always be better

UC Browser isn’t perfect, though. According to research carried out, the browser is not the most secure and also has a number of privacy issues. It has also been known to leak data such as IMSI, IMEI, Android ID, MAC Address and also the Geo location of users without having any encryption. This led to UC Browser being removed from the Google Play Store, but now it seems, they’re back.

While Chinese companies such as Alibaba speak openly about cooperating with authorities on security and law enforcement issues, US companies usually resist US government requests for information, opting for the issuing of a Warrant.

Google has noticed UC Browser

Of course they would. You really wouldn’t think that Google would allow their web browser to dwindle in Asia, would you? As part of Google’s Next Billion Users initiative, the company is already hard at work carrying out various optimizations to its Android components. We’ve already seen Android Go and Android Go devices being teased as well.

Because the core concept behind these platforms and devices is to run Android on low end hardware, UC Browser’s popularity might be short lived. Will Google Chrome step up to the plate and give us a browser that is both storage and memory efficient? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

If you’re interested to see what UC Browser is about, you can install it to your Android device by clicking here.

On my phone, Google Chrome is taking up just 89MB of space. So not sure this “Google Chrome when just installed, takes up around 125MB” is true of all phones, maybe just the one person who wrote this article.

And if you desire a slimmer browser, why not try Opera Mini? It can save 90% data too, especially on the “extreme” savings mode

Currently, Google Chrome is taking 186MB of app space on my Oneplus Two. Perhaps it differs according to mobile phones. As for trying Opera Mini, Yes it is a handy browser indeed but the point here was to see how UC Browser is in fact, gaining popularity over Google Chrome in India and Indonesia.

The UC browser is the most used browser in the mobile phone because it is very fast but it is not used much in the Microsoft Office Support windows but if you want to surf the internet in the mobile then use UC browser

The other reason of uc browser popularity is perhaps… Opera, maxton, chrome and most of other browsers are 3+ rated, only uc 12+ rated (sex, unrestricted internet etc.) Find this at play store (learn more)

Event Details

Venture Frontier Lanka is bringing experts in entrepreneurship from around the country to cities throughout Sri Lanka to train local entrepreneurs to think differently about the ventures they will start.

Event Details

Venture Frontier Lanka is bringing experts in entrepreneurship from around the country to cities throughout Sri Lanka to train local entrepreneurs to think differently about the ventures they will start. A caravan stop consists of different sessions about creating unique ideas for startup ventures and strategies for financing those ideas.

Come join the sessions on the 19th of December, starting with 2 pm at Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology.
The event is free of charge! REGISTRATION is mandatory for this event

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Early Bird till the 16th of Dec: 20% discount
Likuid Members: 20% discount
Female/Social Entrepreneurs (Locals Only): 50% discount
Join for a one day workshop where we unchain the collective wisdom and creativity

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Join for a one day workshop where we unchain the collective wisdom and creativity to help each other having a more productive digital nomad new year and build better cooperations for teamwork.

During this peer to peer learning session you can share your experiences to help others and learn from other practitioners. Together, dive into the most painful problems and brainstorm on solutions. It’s for you if you resonate with some of these questions:

How do I integrate work, life and travel?
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What are the best skills for a digital nomad?

ABOUT THE METHOD:
“We create space for meaningful conversations, experimental and peer to peer learning. Nothing frontal, no preaching. But space for your very unique questions.”

ABOUT THE HOST:
Kitti is a digital nomad herself and a marketing consultant for innovative companies and early stage startups. She is a conversation ambassador for tedxdanubia, hosted meaningful conversations on ideas worth spreading. In the past years she worked in self organized teams, practiced facilitation, joined peer to peer networks, decentralized teams and cocreated a collective of freelancers. She is a cofounder of a sustainability startup that just secured its first round of investment. Worked as a mentor for many startups, and in the meantime she visited more than 15 countries.

Are you a Sri Lankan female entrepreneur or a local social business? Reach out for your discounted tickets!

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Karthik ( Associate Director, DTCC & Co-organiser of Hyperledger Chennai Meetup) will be here for the 2nd Hyperledger meetup.
He will share his experience with Hyperledger and Business application of Blockchain